Friday, 4 September 2009
Truth in Blog Journalism
I've long held and all of my friends will attest to this that one of the things I really push for on Blogacause is that we write the truth. Wither it be a political discourse or a scientific expose or whatever, myself and my friends here at blogacause endeavor to present the truth with good references in fact.
I think its worth mentioning this because there seems to be so much disinformation coming from all sides of late, things like the healthcare debate, vaccinations and the economy. Karthika Muthukumaraswamy wrote an excellent article about accuracy and credibility in online journalism, building on the example of honest reporting in the scientific research community. Having been a scientist and also a manager of scientists, I know the intolerance the scientists have for erroneous data or reports that fluff or alter the data to fit expectations. In one case, $20 million dollars worth, of intolerance for results that were fudged on a shipment of coal that some chemists I know ran tests on.
I can even point to an article I did recently about Eric Wallace where I made statements that later proved to be unfounded. In that instance, I had even listed the original source(s) and seemingly the data that was there and so I though supported my entry was found at a later date to have changed and no longer support my statements. I immediatedly updated that post and apologized to Mr. Wallace.
It's as simple as that folks. If your going to write on blogacause be open to the idea that if you get it wrong you might have to eat a little humble pie and say your sorry.
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